Nikola Tesla and Niagara Falls

1. Nikola Tesla and Niagara Falls By Nathaniel Rosenbloom March 13, 2006 Engineer Seminar “Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World” Images from http://umsis.miami.edu/~pvaidyan/images/Niagara%20Falls.JPG

2. Tesla's Misfortune • The 1890’s do not find Tesla to be in great shape • In 1895 Tesla’s New York laboratory was burned to the ground • His work of half a life time was destroyed. • None of the lost equipment was insured • Financially ruined and without inventions he had been working on • Tesla was reported to be “wandering streets in a daze”

3. Help in a time of neeed • One man came forward to help Tesla in his time of need • “clever, handle-bar moustached financier; Edward Dean Adams, • President of the cataract construction company of Niagara Falls” • Adams helped because Tesla was the “consulting genius of one of the most extraordinary engineering feats in history”

4. The Niagara Falls Power Project • Began in 1890 • A dream of scientists and citzens alive to press the Falls • into an “honest days work” • Previous attempts to capture the power of the falls included: • Saw mills • Primitive waterwheels that provided tiny amounts of energy • It was guessed that the latent power contained in the Falls was • equal to all the coal mined in the world each day • Project proposes a system of canals and tunnels, diverting the • Niagara River down 150-foot wheel pits to turn enormous • water turbines • No one but Tesla had proposed any technical means of distributing • the energy once captured

5. Tesla’s Plan • Full Hydro-electric concept never fully attempted • One attempt had created 12.5 kilowatts of direct current • Direct current: transmission limited to users within a mile or two • International commission chaired by celebrated British Physicist • Lord Kelvin formed to solve problem • Commission received proposals from all over world, • seventeen in all • All ended up being rejected, only one based on alternating current • Turning Point: 1893 Chicago World’s Fair • Lord Kelvin changes mind about Alternating Current • Tesla wins War of Currents

6. Implementation of Tesla’s System • Despite corporate issues and bad-blood, General Electric and • Westinghouse able to work together on construction of • Niagara Project • October 1893: Westinghouse awarded contract to build the powerhouse • at the Falls, to be outfitted with first two of ten generators • designed by Tesla • Generators of five thousand horsepower, largest built to that day • General Electric awarded contract to build 22 mils of transmission lines • Tesla’s polyphase system would be used throughout • Allowed GE to perform two-phase current from the generators • into three-phase distribution lines • Time of construction a traumatic time filled with doubt and stress for • all parties involved

7. Doubt from outside, confidence from within • Commission skeptical as to whether full hyrdo system using • Tesla’s inventions would be successful • Tesla supremely confident • “if the company will put 400,000 horsepower upon a wire, • I will deliver it at a commercial profit to the city of New York • After five years of waiting, switch thrown and system worked • just as Tesla said it would • By 1900, New York City was being electrified • Before long, the entire country was being powered by power stations and transmission lines, bringing electric light, heating, manufacturing and hundreds of new labor-saving appliances • Through all this, Tesla was distraught, laying in his bed and speaking to no one

8. Tesla’s Patents For system of electrical distribution

11. Aftermath of War of Currents • Whole world, including Tesla, in awe of what had been accomplished at Niagara Falls • War of Currents had left Westinghouse and General Electric financially morally drained • All this happened during era of robber barons, • J.P. Morgan, the biggest of the robber barons, wanted to take control of all hydroelectric power in the United States • He did this by manipulating stock market forces with the intention of bankrupting Westinghouse and purchasing Tesla’s patents

12. Tesla’s Gesture • George Westinghouse told Tesla that he could not pay the liberal • royalties in Tesla’s contract • Tesla ripped up the contract in thanks to the one man who had believed • in his invention • He was convinced that greater inventions lay ahead • Tesla’s gesture saved Westinghouse and left Tesla in recurring • financial difficulties that the inventor did not comprehend • Most Americans did not know of Tesla’s gesture and assumed he lived • well off of those royalties

13. Niagara and Beyond • Tesla did not attend the flipping of the switch but returned to Niagara • three months later where he was honored at a “power banquet” • which consisted of the important bankers, engineers, lawyers, and • other mechanics that made the project possible • Reports of the banquet where that the highlight was Tesla’s speech • He was cut short in his speech by the sponsors of the dinner • Having read the speech beforehand, they kept Tesla from announcing a • new discovery that would make the power lines of Niagara • obsolete: the wireless transmission of energy

14. Niagara Today • The system at Niagara today remains largely unchanged • After Tesla’s system, no other system but AC made industrial sense • Ironically, Edison historically credited with achievement and Tesla • left poor and without a laboratory

15. Sources • Cheney, Margaret and Robert Uth. Tesla: Master of Lightning • Barnes and Noble Books. 1999 • http://www.pbs.org/tesla/index.html • Images from: • http://umsis.miami.edu/~pvaidyan/images/Niagara%20Falls%202.JPG • http://www.waterfallswest.com/images/niagara-falls-3.jpg • http://www.delargy.com/images/2003_6_Canada/edge%20of%20Niagara%20Falls.jpg • http://www.birdsasart.com/niagara%20falls.jpg • http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/ICO/1445055.jpg